3/14/2011

You can’t really turn a Linux system to a Mac, but you definitely can make your Ubuntu Hardy looks like a Mac OSX Leopard.
If you want to change this
follow the steps below.Before we start…
First, create a folder in your Home and name it Mac_files. Download the following files to the Mac_files folder.

3/10/2011

This guide explains how you can enable a remote desktop on an Ubuntu desktop so that you can access and control it remotely. This makes sense for example if you have customers that are not very tech-savvy. If they have a problem, you can log in to their desktops without the need to drive to their location. I will also show how to access the remote Ubuntu desktop from a Windows XP client and an Ubuntu client. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

3/08/2011

Recently it was brought to my attention that all the desktop Linux hoopla in the world doesn't mean squat without compelling applications to get the end user interested. To address this need, I’ve rounded up fifteen powerful Linux applications that reflect the best that Linux has to offer the desktop user, both in and out of the enterprise environment.This is not meant to diminish any excluded apps. Instead my goal is to showcase applications that I’ve found to be really powerful for the typical Linux user.
1. Kontact – Even though I'm partial to the GNOME desktop and many of the applications found within it, there is something amazing about certain KDE applications. One of the best is actually a bundle of applications known as Kontact. Out of all of the components provided, the three most used pieces included with the suite are Kmail, KaddressBook and Korganizer. Each of these components provide users with a visually appealing way to tackle their daily duties with email, schedules and so forth. Other tools to note within the suite include KNotes and Akregator, both of which are very capable and powerful programs within their own right.

3/05/2011

For many small business users, all the rational arguments for using open source software like Linux make a great deal of sense: It's free, customizable, compatible, and it's free of vendor lock-in, to name just a few.
When it comes down to the wire at purchase time, however, many fall prey to one or more of the frequently perpetuated myths out there, and vague fears of incompatibility or a lack of support or something else drive them right back into Redmond's waiting arms.
One way to make the notion of a Linux-based computer less worrisome for such users is to buy hardware preloaded with Ubuntu, Canonical's version of the open source operating system. That can go a long way toward ensuring that everything "just works" out of the box, and I've already discussed good ways and places to do this.

3/04/2011

We have discussed a lot about multimedia applications available for Linux, but never really about media center applications specifically. Unlike many other niches where Linux lags behind other proprietary OS's in terms of good applications available, Linux have a clear upper hand when you consider the sheer number of very good open source media center applications available out there. Here is a quick listing of top 5 media center applications for Linux. Read on.

XBMC Media Center

Probably the most popular open source media center application out there. Plenty of users already and you won't have any problem finding support. The latest release comes with new add-ons system which means even more skins, plugins, visualizations, add-ons for XBMC which are not only awesome but also very easy to install and use.

mylvmbackup is a Perl script for quickly creating MySQL backups. It uses LVM's snapshot feature to do so. To perform a backup, mylvmbackup obtains a read lock on all tables and flushes all server caches to disk, creates a snapshot of the volume containing the MySQL data directory, and unlocks the tables again. This article shows how to use it on an Ubuntu 8.10 server.
I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

I'm assuming that MySQL is already set up and running on your system. The system must use LVM, and the MySQL data directory (/var/lib/mysql) should have an LVM partition of its own (althouth that is optional).

If you have read Back Up (And Restore) LVM Partitions With LVM Snapshots you know that LVM snapshots require some unused LVM partition for the snapshot. My test system has a second, currently unused hard drive /dev/sdb that will be used by mylvmbackup to create a temporary logical volume for the backup.

3/01/2011

What drives some people to use one mobile platform over another?
Although I’m a diehard Linux advocate, I happen to be a reasonably happy owner of an iPhone 4. You didn't just misread this, I actually prefer using the iPhone over countless Android phones I’ve tried in the past.
With each smartphone tested, I kept finding myself comparing the Android phones to my iPhone. Maybe this is because the iPhone was providing me with the kind of experience I wanted from my smartphone. Why switch something if what you have already works?